move forward and advance on Moscow, from which it was said that we were
only twenty days' march distant. Among those who opposed most vehemently
this immediate march on Moscow, I heard the names cited of the Duke of
Vicenza and the Count of Lobau; but what I can assert of my own
knowledge, and which I learned in a manner to leave no room for doubt, is
that the grand marshal of the palace tried on numerous occasions to
dissuade the Emperor from this project. But all these endeavors were of
no avail against his will.

We then directed our course towards the second capital of Russia, and
arrived after a few days march at Smolensk, a large and beautiful city.
The Russians, whom he thought he had caught at last, had just evacuated
it, after destroying much booty, and burning the greater part of the
stores.

We entered by the light of the flames, but it was nothing in comparison
to what awaited us at Moscow. I remarked at Smolensk two buildings which
seemed to me of the greatest beauty,--the cathedral and the episcopal
palace, which last seemed to form a village in itself, so extensive are
the buildings, and being also separated from the city.

I will not make a list of the places with barbarous names through which
we passed after leaving Smolensk. All that I shall add as to our
itinerary during the first half of this gigantic campaign is that on the
5th of September we arrived on the banks of the Moskwa, where the Emperor
saw with intense satisfaction that at last the Russians were determined
to grant him the great battle which he so ardently desired, and which he
had pursued for more than two hundred leagues as prey that he would not
allow to escape him.